Positive Polly or Debbie Downer? How Social Exclusion Affects Consumer’s Online Information Sharing

In this paper, we investigate the impact of social rejection on the tendency of consumers to exhibit a positivity bias when sharing information with others. We argue that social rejection activates a desire for social affiliation, leading consumers to view the valence of shared information as instrumental in achieving reaffiliation. Specifically, we propose that people tend to view positive information as self-enhancing, and therefore, social rejection enhances the tendency to share positive information. However, we also show that when consumers perceive social rejection as stable, the pursuit of reaffiliation is no longer a viable strategy, and they cease to display a positivity bias in their information sharing. Our findings also indicate that the activation of social connectivity perceptions can mitigate the effects of both stable and unstable social exclusion on the sharing of positive information.